The U.K. is running a risk of creating a "fatherhood penalty" as fathers consider stalling or sidelining their careers to find roles they can better combine with family life, says a report just out.

Despite all the talk about "diversity" in business, one thing remains true: those sitting in the U.K.'s boardrooms remain on average over 59 years old, older than their counterparts in 2006. So perhaps it is not all that surprising that workplace culture has again been identified as a key problem - not just for women, but for men as well.

Most of what is written about management and business is written by people over a certain age. If millennial workers really are a different bunch in terms of their values, there is good reason to wonder whether a dangerous "disconnect" continues to grow between business norms and employee expectations. The focus on raising the number of women in non-executive director positions, on improving the executive pipeline and on working mothers has been so strong, everyone appears to have forgotten to ask how a new generation of men feels about combining family and work.

The 2017 Modern Families Index, published today by work-life charity Working Families and Bright Horizons, captures a broad and also a painful picture - of fathers wanting to take an active part in childcare and of workplaces failing to adapt and support their aspirations.

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Family, it says from its research, is "the highest priority for fathers." Providing a snapshot into the lives of working families from across the U.K., the Index was completed by 2,750 parents across the country in 2016. For example, a quarter of the fathers that took part in the study said they dropped their children at school or nursery every day; with just over a quarter (26%) collecting them more than half the time.

The report says that seven out of 10 fathers work flexibly to fulfill their caring responsibilities. However, fathers say they work longer hours because this is the only way to deal with their workload and that being seen to do long hours is important where they work. Tellingly, it suggests: "twice the number of fathers compared to mothers believe that flexible workers are viewed as less committed and that working flexibly will have a negative impact on their career."

For many fathers the workplace is seen as actively "unsupportive of their aspirations for a better work-life fit," says the report. For nearly one-fifth, their employer is, at best, unsympathetic about childcare, expecting no disruption to work. At worst, they say they wouldn’t even tell their employer they had childcare problems - for fear of being viewed negatively. "It’s telling that a whopping 44% of fathers have lied or bent the truth to their employer about family related responsibilities that ‘get in the way’ of work," says the report.

It also finds that seven out of ten fathers say that they would consider their childcare needs before taking a new job or a promotion. "Fathers are making the same considerations and face the same barriers to their career progression that mothers have faced for decades," it says.

This is nothing short of tragic in terms of going backwards, given the thinking needed for new working environments for better productivity - a topic with which the U.K. is justifiably obsessed.

Following this report, Maria Miller MP and Chair of the Parliamentary Women and Equalities Select Committee said: "We are now launching a new inquiry into Fathers and the Workplace to look at whether fathers are getting the support they need in the workplace to fulfill their caring responsibilities." The same committee's inquiry into the Gender Pay Gap in 2016 found that sharing caring responsibilities equally between mothers and fathers was the "key" to reducing that gap.

The U.K. government does have a flagship policy of Shared Parental Leave - but "it is likely to have little impact as it is predicted by the Government to have a take-up rate of just 2%-8%'"she added.

So what is going wrong ? Could it be, quite simply, that boardrooms have long become so disconnected from change among the rank and file of employees and stakeholders, that they represent parallel worlds and different cultures? Because surely it is not about accommodating "caring responsibilities" alone, but about making room for the individual values and choices of your employees. That implies mutual respect, rather than an expectation of deference regarding a career in return for an employment contract that can be tweaked at will.

In order to keep their businesses relevant at every level, it's time for younger voices to be heard in the U.K.'s boardrooms.

I'm a long-time journalist who never did like to specialize, as I have too many areas of interest in a fast-changing world. I am an independent writer/editor/consultant, an ex-Financial Times journalist and I have been a regular contributor to the FT in recent years. I now w...